Natalie Bacon: How to Make $100,000 Blogging With a Full-Time Job

Welcome to the Scaling Success Stories series!

If you’re new to this series, I ask online entrepreneurs questions regarding growing and scaling their business.

This is the series description:

“Imagine if you could learn from the experts on how to grow and scale your business. Every Monday, I invite entrepreneurs who have conquered this challenge to share their stories, from realizing they could make money online to building thriving businesses that positively change their customers’ lives. If you want to quit your full-time job and pursue your business wholeheartedly, read on to learn how you can discover your true purpose, find success, and live the life you want to.”

You can get your fill of online business tips by reading the other interviews on the Scaling Success Stories page.

Table of Contents

Interview with Natalie Bacon from NatalieBacon.com

It was my pleasure interviewing Natalie Bacon of NatalieBacon.com, a popular personal development, blogging, and personal finance blog that teaches you how to design your dream life and live the life you want. Natalie started out as a lawyer, then became a CFP, and then realized she wanted to be an online entrepreneur. As a Certified Life Coach, she now coaches her students on how to create amazing lives from the future.

Now, she makes over $100,000 on autopilot, primarily from her eCourses and eBooks. She quit being a CFP to crest the 6-figure mark.

Check out what Natalie had to say to my questions!

1. Why did you start an online business and how does your passion still drive your business’ growth today?

I started an online business as a personal finance blog about my student loan debt after law school.

Since then, I became a financial expert and worked at a registered investment advisory firm that managed over $1B in assets under management.

My experience has helped me understand money from all angles, adding a new and different way of teaching to my business.

What I mean is I use my experience to teach a very unique view on money (specifically money mindset). It took me years to understand how money really works and had I not started my blog, none of this would’ve been possible.

Editor’s note: Let this be a reminder that the most successful people have built their businesses over the years. Finding your niche and purpose is not an overnight discovery.

2. At what point did you realize that your business was “taking off” and that you could really make money from it?

I never realized my business was taking off, per se.

I had to take a leap of faith and start believing in it ahead of getting any results.

Only after I really started believing it was possible did I take massive action and get those results.

This was over a year ago, and I’ve quadrupled my business revenue since then. It feels amazing.

I am so grateful for this opportunity and journey. It’s truly my dream come true.

3. At what point did you realize you were living the life you wanted to?

When I quit my full-time job and went all in on my business.

Also, when I moved from Ohio to Chicago and moved into a beautiful apartment.

Every day I get to work when and how I want. I love it.

4. One of the biggest fears of outsourcing is trusting the people you hire to run your business the way you would. How did you overcome this and where did you find the right freelancers and employees to help you grow your business?

I don’t have freelancers or employees in my business.

Anyone who helps me as an assistant right now is someone I know personally.

To start getting any help at all and get out of the solopreneur mindset, I started very small.

For example, I had someone I know very well start my editing my blog posts.

This has been amazing because it saves me a ton of time and allows me to stay in my zone of genius, doing things I love. I think the more I get comfortable with this, the more I’ll do it. I think I’ll have more virtual assistants a year from now as I grow. Very exciting!

Editor’s note: Natalie also outsources WordPress maintenance to Grayson Bell over at iMark Interactive. He’s the same guy that helps me out and takes away all my technical headaches. At just $37/month, his services are highly affordable to all bloggers.

5. A common myth is that as you grow and scale your business, you have to sell your soul to make money, especially when you venture into paid advertising. How do you debunk this myth in your business?

That couldn’t be further from the truth!

I think the real way to scale and grow your business is to serve your audience and provide value to them. The more you do this, the more money you make, and the less you work.

6. Why do you think most people fail to grow their businesses and what advice would you offer them to keep pushing, despite all the setbacks?

I think people work too hard at the wrong things.

You need to evaluate what you’re doing constantly.

If you’re not growing, then it’s time to try something new.

Have the key performance indicators that are most important to you. Measure them constantly. Keep trying new strategies until you get the result you want.

Editor’s note: Carly Campbell echoed the sentiment of drilling down on what it is you do best and doing more of that and Jeff Proctor realized that affiliate marketing, not digital products, was his way to grow his blog’s revenue. There isn’t one set path.

7. How important has niching down been (no matter how hard it hurts) to your business’ growth and profitability?

SO important!

The more niched-down you are in the beginning, the better. You can always go broader or into another market down the road, but in the beginning, you have to be very specific and have a sub-niche.

This is a huge mistake I see new online business owners make.

Editor’s note: Look at who Natalie targets. Rather than going for one specific topic, she serves one specific audience — creative, career-driven women who want more fulfillment, more money, and more freedom. By doing so, she can talk about different topics successfully and interweave them. Sarah Titus and Michelle-Schroeder Gardner take a similar approach.

8. What do you attribute your success to and how do you explain it? Do you think the same strategies will help you reach your next monetization goals? Why or why not?

I have a lot of grit.

This has kept me hungry and focused on my business throughout the years.

This is what helps me transition to the next level every time. It’s what got me from $0 to $100 and from $5,000 to $15,000 per month. It’s what will get me from six-figures to seven-figures.

I hope I never lose my grit. It serves me so well through the seasons of life.

Editor’s note: McKinzie Bean says how success is not attained overnight and Russell and Maleah Barbour document just how long it took them to make 5-figures per month. Natalie confirms that successful entrepreneurs stick at it, no matter how tough it can be.

9. To scale, you really need to have a systemized business. What steps have you taken to build those systems and how do you optimize them?

Something I teach in my blogging course, Online Business For Her, is that from $0 to $1M it’s all about the what and the how—what you’re selling and how you’re selling it.

So, for me, I’ve been focusing on building revenue.

Only this year (after hitting six-figures) did I start to think about systems and processes.

Now, I use Asana and Evernote. They’re so great!

10. If you could speak face-to-face with yourself when you first started your business, what pearls of wisdom would you impart?

I would tell her to learn everything about direct response marketing, to take my business seriously, and to quit my job within one year of starting my business.

I would also tell her that it will be okay and work out way better than I can even imagine.

About Natalie Bacon

Natalie Bacon is a life coach and online entrepreneur with a focus on helping creative, career-driven women who want more from life—more fulfillment, more money, and more freedom. Prior to this, Natalie practiced as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ at a firm that managed over $1B in assets under management. Before her financial planning career, Natalie practiced as a business attorney. Natalie has been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, and CNBC. Read Natalie’s full story here.

Interested in Learning From Natalie?

Natalie has the eCourse or eBook to help you with whatever you need in your business right now!

Personal Development for Her

Her flagship course, Personal Development for Her, teaches you how to discover exactly how to become a BOSS at mastering your mindset, emotions, productivity, time management, goal-setting, and habits.

If you think…

How can changing my mindset possibly help me in my business?

Then you need to change your mindset.

Without a doubt, switching to thinking and creating my life from the future and redefining my past using neuroplasticity has been a life-changing and revolutionary experience.

She’ll also teach you how to be more productive and efficient, all while shattering your goals (as she did).

Check out Personal Development for Her Today!

(It used to be called Design Your Dream Life Academy, for reference, but it was recently rebranded).

And, because I helped her out with a testimonial video, you can get a 15% discount with my exclusive coupon. Just send me an email to receive it!

Online Business For Her

As Natalie mentioned, she was able to make the transition from working at a full-time job to blogging and being an online entrepreneur full-time.

Now, she teaches you how to do the same with her course, Online Business For Her.

Before you think this is just another blogging course, it isn’t.

It’s a blogging course that teaches more marketing strategies than I have ever seen.

Natalie has created a unique product that teaches new bloggers to rely on solid strategies to achieve success instead of hope marketing, which is just praying people come to your blog and purchase things.

Even if you’re not a new blogger, you can still learn something from this course.

Check out Online Business For Her Today!

You can get a 15% discount with my exclusive coupon. Just send me an email to receive it!

Other Digital Products by Natalie Bacon

Check out these additional resources:

Money Mindset For Her: Money Mindset Course
Dream Year: Personal Development and Goal-Setting Workbook
How I Made $45k Blogging in One Year While Working Full-Time: Online Business eBook

You can also get a 15% discount on Money Mindset for Her with my exclusive coupon code. Just send me an email to receive it!

Conclusion

Thanks for participating in my series, Natalie!

As you can tell, it’s NOT EASY growing and scaling an online business, but there are some things you can do to aid you in the process.

Inspired by Natalie Bacon?

Now, it’s your turn!

I assembled the Scaling Blueprint to show you how to…

Outsource Effectively
Systemize Your Business
Shatter Your Revenue Goals

After working with six-figure and seven-figure clients, I know the difference between how they function.

Let me help you start scaling successfully.

Get My FREE Blueprint!

Cheers to future success!